Susan Lyon and Scott Burdick at WIFAS

Two fantastic painters at WIFAS this past week
Susan and Scotts, draftsmanship and color are superb and they are able to convey their knowledge very well also!
Every morning brought a new demonstration, 3 days of Susan and 3 days of Scott, they were brilliant!!

Outstanding instructors,great studio space,serious students,organized monitor,dedicated director,friendly people,delicious food-the perfect workshop experience

Joe 

 Cary painting with Susan and Scott after the workshop! Lucky her!!

 Beautiful Lady with a nice apron!!

 

 Student / Instructor dinner

ONE OF SCOTTS DEMO'S

MORE SCOTTS DEMOS:

STUDENTS WORK:

Capturing Humanity

One of our goals at Whidbey Island Fine Art Studio (WIFAS) is to bring exemplary teachers to host workshops so that our students get the best possible instruction to help each one improve as an artist. We are pleased to have artist couple Scott Burdick and Susan Lyon hosting an oil painting workshop in portraits at WIFAS in July 2014.

Scott Burdick and Susan Lyon are award-winning artists who travel the world and paint its occupants. They enjoy passing on the knowledge that they have received from teachers who were significant to them in their artistic development. Scott is known for his ability to capture the humanity of subjects as well as his mastery of color and light. Susan is admired for her sensitivity and delicacy of hand, especially in portraits.

These two artists have the special knack for getting inside an artist’s head and making it come out your hand. With the unusual ability to easily go back and forth between both sides of the brain, Scott and Susan make great teachers because they can communicate while they paint to help other artists understand their process. This coupled with Scott and Susan’s ability to put their students at ease creates a wonderful learning environment. In addition to working to make the atmosphere comfortable and accepting, Scott and Susan also make a point of spending time with each artist in the class so that all students receive input from both teachers.

This workshop is sure to be an excellent experience for everyone who attends. However, if you are not able to attend, but want to learn from these master painters, you can:

• Order their video lessons availablethrough their website.
• View the images from their step-by-step painting demonstrations, also on their website.
• Order Susan’s book Visions & Voyages.

The most powerful learning tool is in-person, hands-on instruction. That’s what WIFAS is about, nurturing your artist talent and soul!

Nourishment for Your Soul

With so many art workshops across the country and even internationally, choosing the right instructor and setting for an art class can be overwhelming. 

Why come to Whidbey Island for your next art class? What sets Whidbey Island Fine Art Studio (WIFAS) apart from other art studies offering art workshops? 

Our motto “Feeding the Artistic Soul” sums up what we do. A workshop at Whidbey Island Fine Art Studio will feed your artist's soul in three unique ways. 

1. Our picturesque, pastoral setting. 

Whidbey Island, located across the Puget Sound just 30 miles from Seattle, is a wonderful place for relaxation and tranquility. WIFAS’s location in Langley, a quaint historical village, offers views of the water. In addition, the island’s farms, forests, bluffs, and beaches provide the foregrounds to many aquatic vistas. The quiet and romantic surroundings that are so much a part of the Whidbey Island experience help to restore and feed every artist’s soul. Coming to a workshop at WIFAS is like taking a relaxing vacation with picturesque gardens and farms, and water, island, and mountain views in every direction. 

  

2. Personalized approach. 

Each workshop offered at WIFAS includes personalized instruction for the artists in attendance. There is always plenty of room for everyone to have their own easel with elbow room to allow creative juices to flow. We place an emphasis on utilizing seasoned artists who provide good instruction delivered in such a manner that it sticks with our attendees long after they go home, continuing to strengthen and nourish each soul. In addition, WIFAS ensures that our students’ needs are attended to, from delicious snacks to personal questions answered.

 

3. Class dinner. 

Every workshop presented by Whidbey Island Fine Art Studio includes a dinner hosted by Cary Jurriaans in her home for the instructor and all the students in the class. For many students, this dinner is a highlight of their time at WIFAS as they get to interact with their instructor and the other students in an informal, relaxed atmosphere. We guarantee the food will be delicious, ensuring that it feeds your soul as well as your stomach. 

 

You can find a list of our upcoming workshops on our website at http://whidbeyislandfas.com/workshops.html. Sign up for one or more of our upcoming workshops and get the nourishment your artistic soul.

Improving a Palette

We recently asked a couple artists who have taken workshops at Whidbey Island Fine Art Studio (WIFAS) to answer a few questions for us about our classes. Pat Brookes jumped at the chance to tell us how she has benefited from her WIFAS art instruction experiences. You can read what she has to share about our classes and her resulting growth as an artist in the interview below.

Q: Which workshop at WIFAS have you recently attended?

A: I have taken multiple workshops over the past couple of years at WIFAS including Jeff Legg, Dreama Tolle Perry, Ron Stocke, Pam Ingalls, Qiang Huang, and Jim Lamb.

 

Q: What did you find most helpful about the art instruction you received at the workshop?

A: I am finding that a limited palette seems to make my paintings integrated; less chance of mud, although even mud if you can identify the base color has an interesting quality.

Q: Did you learn any new techniques or were you reminded of old ones in a new way in the workshop?

A: I learned to make a color base, and then change up that base to darker, lighter, warmer, cooler.  In addition, I learned to make fewer pat-pat strokes and more meaningful placement of color. Various artists taught interesting techniques:

Pam Ingalls takes three strokes with one color before changing the color. She uses a limited palette only earth color is yellow oxide. Her setups are exciting and different.

Dreama may take one or two strokes and loads her brush, then lays the paint down. She also works with a limited palette that doesn't include earth colors other than transparent yellow oxide. Dreama uses specific brushes that she tells you about.

Qiang Huang also uses a limited palette, transparent paints and pure colors. His b rushes are non-specific and cheap, but he makes them work well! His work is extra ordinary and we all felt privileged to take a class from him

Q: What did you appreciate most about the setup or structure of the workshop?

A: I think that Cary goes overboard in making everyone feel welcome. We were fed and pampered as if we were in her own home.

Q: Were you inspired to paint a particular image during or after the workshop?

A: I sold my best painting done during the Jeff Legg workshop.  

Q: How do you feel your painting has improved as a result of a workshop you attended?

A: My friends tell me they can see a difference in my painting.  I have just been using oils for a year-and-a-half, but it’s messed up my ability to paint watercolor.  

Q: Could you share a highlight from your experience at WIFAS—either from the workshop or your time on Whidbey Island?

A: I just painted plein air with Jim Lamb at Double Bluff.  We started early in the morning and it was such a beautiful day. I enjoyed the experience of being outdoors and working at representing what I saw. There were tons of people on the beach and even Rainier was out. What more could you ask for?

Q: Are you planning on attending any other workshops with WIFAS in the near future?

A: I feel so lucky to have a quality place to continue my art education right here in my own town! Yes, I will be back.

An Artist's Perspective

We recently asked a couple artists who have taken workshops at Whidbey Island Fine Art Studio (WIFAS) to answer a few questions for us about our classes. Pam Leiper jumped at the chance to tell us how she has benefitted from her WIFAS art instruction experiences. You can read what she has to share about our classes and her resulting growth as an artist in the interview below. 

Q: Which workshop at WIFAS have you recently attended? 

A: I have taken two workshops at Whidbey, a figure drawing workshop with Henry Yan in 2012, and an oil painting workshop with Dreama Perry in 2013. 

Q: What did you find most helpful about the art instruction you received at the workshop? 

A: My first passion is figures, so my workshop with Henry Yan was inspirational. It was five days of heaven. I tend to labor over my figures, and Henry can capture the pose even with the quickest sketches. He has exceptional control using his razor sharp charcoal pencils, and he demonstrated beautiful techniques to soften shadow shapes. I would take his class again and again until I achieve the same skill in my own life drawings. 

Q: Did you learn any new techniques or were you reminded of old ones in a new way in the workshop? 

A: I do enjoy painting in oils, however I tend to make 'mud' with color. Dreama's palette is always fresh and she has lovely brush work, so I thought her workshop would help me with my own oils. She provided a very fun three day experience, as fun, nourishing and colorful as she is. She demonstrated her technique of laying down transparent color first, then covering with colorful opaques and controlled but bold brushwork. This has been useful for me, and I've been practicing this technique since the workshop.

Q: What did you appreciate most about the setup or structure of the workshop? 

A: Cary Jurriaans always does a great job organizing the WIFAS studio space. There was ample room to paint, easel space is allotted democratically, and she always has lovely refreshments on hand. 

Q: Were you inspired to paint a particular image during or after the workshop? 

 A: Since Henry's workshop, I continue to work on figures. I haven't mastered his technique… but will keep trying. Since Dreama's, I have tried a few oils. 

Q: Could you share a highlight from your experience at WIFAS— either from the workshop or your time on Whidbey Island? 

A: The WIFAS studio is located in the very picturesque village of Langley on Whidbey Island. It is such a tranquil and gorgeous setting— how can an artist not be inspired? My husband and wee dog accompanied me this last time. We splurged and stayed at the dog-friendly Langley Inn. I would return to WIFAS again and again just to visit the Island. 

Q: Are you planning on attending any other workshops with WIFAS in the near future? 

A: I will definitely return. I'll just keep an eye on the upcoming calendar! 

Points, Masses, & Lines

Artist Zhaoming Wu grew up in China during the Cultural Revolution. At the age of 8 the government closed the schools and he had to leave. He spent his days copying comic books and studying Chinese brush painting from a book. When he was 12, his mother, a doctor, recognizing his talent asked a patient, a professor at Guangzhou Academy of Fine Arts, to train her son. Today, Zhaoming’s paintings are exhibited around the world. 

Whidbey Island FineArt Studio has the privilege of hosting a “Luminous Figure” workshop by Zhaoming. By helping his students focus on the basics and not get lost in the details and particulars, Zhaoming helps others create spectacular figure paintings.

Wu's design principles derive from traditional Chinese painting. He begins composing a new image by determining what he calls points, masses, and lines. While a painting can be built on two or even just one of these three elements, Zhaoming prefers to build his compositions on a mixture of all three. “I use points, masses, and lines the way a composer uses notes to write a song,” he explains.

In his work and teaching, Zhaoming also gives a lot of consideration to the transition between light and shadow. He teaches the following about painting with his techniques:
 

“At the beginning I keep the treatment of shadows flat, with almost no form, but I keep lots of color. After working on the shadows I begin working on the light side. 

“I start with a 2D approach, thinking first of shape, then of value, and then color. First comes 2D—shapes and angles; then 3D—form, volume, and structure.” 

“I use thicker paint on the light side to give texture. Some touches of the brush are very delicate, and some are more scumbling. At the final stages, edge control is very important. There should be a lost and found quality to the edges in order to show atmosphere and depth.”

We hope that you will join us this August 2013 for Zhaoming’s figure workshop.

 

Staying Focused with Gregg Kreutz

“Gregg Kreutz is a glass-half-full type of guy.”

“Gregg is a wonderful teacher and superb artist.”

“Gregg is the nicest, most humble, and personable teacher, while being a wonderful and gifted artist.”

“It was wonderful to see Gregg paint. He just smears the oil paint on, dividing it into light and shadow parts, and then pulls out the details.”

These are just a few of the comments students have made in regards to Gregg Kreutz and his teaching style. 

Gregg Kreutz is a full-time painter and teaches at the Art Students League of New York, as well as art schools around the United States. He is also the author of the book Problem Solving for Oil Painters. Gregg’s book is not a typical how-to art book. Rather, he describes principles and techniques that keep a painting unified and free of fussy details.

"Learning to paint is learning what things really look like," Gregg says. "Details are always trying to lure us to our doom, but you have to be strong and keep your eyes on the big issues. That's more interesting than saying 'make the sky darker.' If you're only copying the look of things, there is something dead or useless in that."

You can watch Gregg paint in this YouTube video. Over the course of three hours during a morning class, Gregg demonstrates how to paint the figure from a live model.

In addition to being a painter, and the author of a book, Gregg has also written three full length plays that are published by Samuel French. They have been and continue to be performed worldwide.

Whidbey Island Fine Art Studio has the privilege of hosting a workshop by Gregg Kreutz in April. This four day class will focus on the art of picture making; how a person, a view, and/or a collection of things can be turned into a unified whole. Through demonstrations and one-on-one instruction, Gregg Kreutz will explore different strategies to turn the seemingly random into a harmonious unit. 

Gregg will have encouragement for each student. For he says, "In any painting there's always something that's working. Expand on that, and don’t slip into this-is-a-disaster feeling."

Discipline and Hard Work

Discipline and hard work. These are two essential ingredients to being self-supporting artist. Just ask Anne Belov. 

Anne tries to be in her studio by 9 AM every morning to paint. In her 35 years as an artist, Anne has painted landscapes, still life, and interior imagery. Her bold and direct brushwork results in captivating imagery that expresses the bond she feels with her subject. Anne says, “My paintings are about my life…where I live, work in the garden, sit in a comfortable chair to read. I refuse to be limited to one subject matter or even one medium. I have worked in watercolor, oils, printmaking (etching, lithography, and monoprint), egg tempera, and drawing.”

Hard work and discipline has kept Anne busy even with the recent slow-down in our economy. With slower sales, Anne decided to use her free time to push the boundaries of her creativity into new directions. Using Kickstarter, Anne ran a successful campaign to raise almost $7,000 in funds to self-publish a wordless children’s picture book, Pandamorphosis. The book was fueled by her obsession with pandas and her panda cartoons which she has been drawing for the past five years. She started a blog, Your Brain on Pandas, in 2009 to showcase these panda cartoons because she says, “My friends got tired of me chasing them down the street with a stack of cartoons clenched in my fist yelling, ‘Tell me they're funny!  Please!  Hey! Wait, you didn't read the one about the panda kindergarten yet!’”

Anne will be teaching a class on Egg Tempera for Whidbey Island Fine Art Studio in April 2013. Anne primarily works in oil on linen glued to hardboard. She uses traditional recipes for egg-oil emulsion rabbit skin glue gesso to create a more absorbent ground than acrylic or oil based gessoes. Subsequent layers of paint create the depth and luminosity that characterize her evocative paintings.

You can follow Anne on her art blog at http://nothingoverlooked.wordpress.com.